Extensive research into the lives of professional ballet dancers has been conducted by the psychological and medical fields, but much of this research has focused on problems in the environment, sometimes in a way that further pathologizes dancers. Professional ballet is a highly demanding performance area, yet little research into ballet dancers’ performance lives has been conducted, which further shapes perceptions about this population. This study explores how South African professional ballet dancers’ performance lives are shaped by discourse, and how they draw on available discursive resources to construct their subjectivity and create meaning, and to what ends, in relation to performance. Findings suggest that dancers are caught up in several powerful, dominant discourses, some of which may position them in ways that cause subjective harm, but that alternatives do exist. Insights into the complex web of intersecting discourses surrounding ballet are offered, and questions posed to create possibilities, but ultimately, dancers must decide which positions they want to claim or resist, as they continually form their subjectivities. / Mini Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Psychology / MA Counselling Psychology / Unrestricted

Tesis para optar al Magíster en Artes con Mención en Composición Musical / Este documento corresponde a mi proyecto de tesis para optar al grado de Magister en Artes con mención en Composición Musical, del programa de Post-Grado de la Facultad de Artes de la Universidad de Chile. La Tesis está orientada a la composición de una obra para ensamble instrumental (10 instrumentistas) destinada al ballet moderno o danza contemporánea, inspirada en la obra de teatro mímica “Acto sin palabras” de Samuel Beckett. Es una obra que persigue una estética contemporánea de carácter escénico, que articula, por medio del uso de las tres familias de instrumentos, aspectos rítmico, de color, atmosférico y la emotividad que se desprende de la comprensión o asimilación de la obra escrita de Beckett. La obra de Beckett, efectivamente sin palabras, nos muestran un hombre en medio de su soledad, no se sabe de dónde viene y no puede ir a ninguna parte. A base de símbolos se descubre la lucha del hombre por lograr algo en la vida. Las oportunidades se le brindan siempre a medias y en cada una de ellas el hombre fracasa en su intento de aprovecharlas. Impotente, el hombre está a merced de su destino paulatinamente agotando su fe, intenta el suicidio y fracasa de nuevo pues tampoco la muerte depende de su voluntad. Otra oportunidad se acerca a él y está su alcance, pero el hombre ya no tiene interés en nada y permanece derrotado esperando su fin. Esta pequeña, pero contundente obra, con su contenido existencial capturo mi atención y decidí tomarla como base simbólica para mi composición y también porque me parece, en su conjunto, muy apropiada para el trabajo colaborativo entre música y danza, cuestión que se investiga en la tesis.

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京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(人間・環境学) / 甲第19793号 / 人博第764号 / 新制||人||184(附属図書館) / 27||人博||764(吉田南総合図書館) / 32829 / 京都大学大学院人間・環境学研究科共生人間学専攻 / (主査)教授 神﨑 素樹, 教授 森谷 敏夫, 教授 石原 昭彦 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Human and Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DFAM

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Male ballet dancers are often constructed as being feminine or homosexual (Bailey & Obershneider, 1997; Phillips, 2008), attributes that do not conform to the broader social ideas of what it means to be a masculine male in South Africa. Therefore, the space occupied by male ballet dancers in South Africa is one that contradicts the patriarchal ideas of masculinity and provides further insights into constructions of masculinity that do not conform to essentialist understandings. Therefore, the aim of this research report was to investigate the ways in which male ballet dancers construct their gender identities, sexualities and bodies within this contradictory space. A purposeful sample of four classically trained male ballet dancers over the age of 18 from Johannesburg, South Africa, was invited to participate in the study by means of snowball sampling. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and were examined using narrative analysis. It was found that male ballet dancers construct their gender identities through their bodies by virtue of their performances. They believe that by linking ballet to other masculine activities, such as sport, they can better negotiate their gender identities in a context where their profession is viewed as inferior, feminine and homosexual. The findings of this research have contributed to a better understanding of gender in an alternative domain, where the ways in which male ballet dancers construct their gender identities are challenged.

In this dissertation, I explore why the male dancer became an object of derision in the French romantic ballet and evaluate the implications of this rejection. I ask what it meant for critics to claim that the male dancer had no right to dance on the stage, over which the newly exalted ballerina was imagined to reign, by accounting for the legal history with which dance remained imbricated. This research addresses a gap in historical gender scholarship of the nineteenth-century ballet, which has overlooked the importance of the male dancer and masculinity, and it brings dance studies into dialogue with law. In these analyses, source materials consulted include official records of the Parlement of Paris, representations of the king and of the other performers under consideration in visual art, dance treatises, jurisprudence, dance criticism, and contemporaneous memoires and literary works. Observing that the male dancer was often understood as a vestige of the monarch of the ancien régime and was therefore seen as a trespasser of the romantic stage, I first examine the performing king as a juridical figure. This is done by way of an analysis of theatricality as a force of law in the king’s representation of himself in the context of the early-eighteenth century lit de justice under Louis XV. The dissertation then examines cases of exceptional masculinity on the French stage on the cusp on the romantic era, initially by exploring androgynous performers in cognate performing arts, opera and pantomime, in the figures of Giovanni Velluti, a castrato, and Jean-Gaspard Deburau, a fairground mime, in the 1820s through 1840s. Repercussions of changes with respect to the theatrical articulation of juridical authority in the male figure identified in the lit de justice are drawn on to account for the affective but contrary public receptions of these two performers. The vilified male dancer is then examined in light of these findings as an intruder of the stage owing to the monarchical sovereignty which he could not help but evoke, yet which was ostensibly denied in the romantic aesthetic. Finally, Jules Perrot is considered as an exceptional performer who, amidst such condemnation, successfully rearticulated the juridical authority of the ancien régime king in his dancing at the Opéra. I argue that Perrot became a theatrical sovereign by means of his femininity and technical mastery, indicating the subsistence of monarchical sovereignty in the balletic form and the enduring imbrication of dance and law. / Dance

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Background: Achilles tendinopathy is a common and debilitating condition among female ballet dancers due to the large repetitive loading forces placed on their Achilles tendons during rehearsals and performances. Tendon health problems in females are exacerbated by a lack of understanding about how energy availability influences tendons. Ballet dancers, as aesthetic athletes, are vulnerable to low energy availability and can enter a spectrum disorder, relative energy deficiency in sport, that consists of low energy availability (with or without disordered eating), menstrual cycle dysfunction, and low bone mineral density (BMD). Aims: 1) To investigate the relationship between insufficient caloric intake and Achilles tendon health in pre-professional ballet dancers. 2) To evaluate if symptoms of relative energy deficiency in sport such as low BMD and menstrual irregularity can be matched with Achilles tendon structural damage in pre-professional ballet dancers. 3) To analyze if there is a relationship between BMD and nutrition in pre-professional ballet dancers. Methods: 30 pre-professional ballet dancers were recruited. Over the course of a 16-week training and performance period, the dancers underwent four ultrasound imaging sessions and two MRI sessions investigating their Achilles tendons. They also underwent one full body DXA scan and completed four ASA24 dietary recall surveys. The dancers additionally filled out questionnaires describing their menstrual history and current Achilles tendon health. At the end of the study, dancers were organized into calorie sufficiency groups (sufficient or insufficient). Results: Within both calorie groups, the Achilles tendon was significantly thicker at the end of the study as compared to the start of the study (p=.046). Within both calorie groups, echogenicity was significantly higher at the first two ultrasound imaging sessions than it was at the last two (p<.05). Additionally, the calorie sufficient group's tendons had a significantly higher echogenicity than the calorie insufficient group at the first two ultrasound imaging sessions (p<.05). There were significantly more dancers in the calorie insufficient group that experienced changes to their menstrual cycle (p=.007). Conclusion: Participants in the calorie sufficient group had significantly more hyperechoic tendons than those in the calorie insufficient group at the start of the study, and all participants saw a significant drop in tendon echogenicity halfway through the study. The results of this study suggest that a better understanding of how average caloric intake affects tendon health in dancers is necessary in order to help treat and prevent AT injuries in this dance population.